For Nicholl, a royal correspondent for The Mail on Sunday who also writes for Vanity Fair, says in her new book, Kate: The Future Queen, that far from being a mere coincidence, Kate deliberately plotted to attend St Andrews University at the same time as the prince.

Jasper Selwyn, a career adviser at Kate’s former school, Marlborough College, and Joan Gall, her house tutor, confirm in the book that her first choice was not St Andrews at all, but Edinburgh. After William’s own choice of university was made public, Kate turned down the place she had been offered at Edinburgh and took a year out, reapplying for St Andrews, a far inferior university, so that she could be not just at the same college as William, but also in the same year.

The book also tells how, in 2009, Carole spoke to William, asking him if he did indeed intend on marrying her daughter, and he assured her that he did.

True love? It never just happens. As the Middletons clearly know, you have to give it a little helping hand.